The scent of turpentine still lingered in the hallway, mixed with faint, distant noise.
Yan Yu pushed her wheelchair out of the painting studio, heading to the water room next door to wash her brushes.
Just as she reached the corner, a few hushed whispers laced with snickers drifted clearly over.
“Did you see that? With her hands shaking like that, and she used to be called the best? Professor Chen’s face was black today.”
“Right? That jar she painted looked like a rock, and the drapery was so stiff.”
“Sigh, times have changed.
I heard Senior Su doesn’t want her anymore.
The real one is back.”
“I think it’s her health. She’s so sick, can’t even sit steady. No wonder she can’t paint well.”
The sharp, tittering laughter was grating to the ears.
The fingers Yan Yu had resting on the wheelchair’s wheels twitched slightly.
Her expression remained blank as she quietly stopped at the border between light and shadow in the corridor.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
A clear, angry female voice suddenly cut through the gossip.
Yan Yu looked up.
Reflected in the shiny metal strip of a corridor pillar, she saw several girls emerge from around the corner, looking somewhat awkward.
Blocking their path was a petite girl.
Even in her school uniform shirt and skirt, she couldn’t hide her radiant presence.
Her skin was snow-white, a cool, porcelain-like shade.
Her features were bright and striking—upturned eyes, a straight nose, full lips currently pressed together in anger, which only made her seem more vivid and formidable.
She was different from Su Qinghan’s severe beauty and Jiang Muyun’s soft, gentle beauty.
Hers was a kind of captivating, unforgettable prettiness.
It was Bai Yan’er.
Fragments of memory pieced themselves together in Yan Yu’s mind: Bai Yan’er, the Bai family’s young miss.
Bai Yan’er was the adopted daughter brought into the family by Yan Yu’s father after he remarried.
Later, she was discovered to be the long-lost true daughter of the Bai family.
Since then, she had left the Yan household and returned to her own family, living the glamorous life of a young lady.
The original host had always been jealous of Bai Yan’er’s background, always avoiding her, keeping her distance.
But Bai Yan’er was like a sticky rice cake that couldn’t be shaken off, always finding ways to get close to this “older sister” who constantly gave her the cold shoulder.
Now, Bai Yan’er frowned, glaring at those girls, her chest rising and falling slightly with agitation.
“Is it your place to say whether Sister Yan Yu paints well or not? Last semester, during finals, Professor Chen personally praised her sense of structure and spatial handling as the most solid in our grade—why didn’t you speak up then?”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but each word was clear, carrying an undeniable force.
“She just didn’t perform well today! Besides…”
She paused, her gaze darting towards Yan Yu for a split second, her voice lowering but growing more firm.
“She definitely knew Senior Jiang also wanted to enter the competition and didn’t want to make things awkward for her, so she didn’t paint seriously.What do you all know?”
Her words were a clear defense, even hinting at “knowing the inside story.”
Those girls were cowed by her presence.
Perhaps wary of her status as the school belle and her genuinely angry demeanor, they exchanged glances, mumbled things like “just talking,” “why so serious,” and scurried away with their necks tucked in.
The corridor fell silent instantly.
Bai Yan’er stood where she was, taking two deep breaths before turning around.
The intimidating aura from moments ago vanished completely.
She looked at Yan Yu in the wheelchair, a nervous expression appearing on her face.
She softened her steps, shuffled forward two small paces, then stopped again, three or four steps away from Yan Yu.
“Si-sister…” she began, her voice soft and gentle, as if afraid of startling something.
“I… was I meddling just now? Running out on my own to speak up for you… you’re not angry with me, are you?”
She stared at Yan Yu with wide, hopeful eyes, her anxiety and longing almost overflowing, like a little animal terrified of being pushed away.
According to the original Yan Yu’s temperament, she would probably have given a cold look, thrown out a “none of your business” or “has nothing to do with you,” then struggled to wheel herself away quickly, leaving Bai Yan’er standing there alone in a daze.
But Yan Yu simply looked at her quietly.
The cautious yearning and the genuine, unfeigned concern in the girl’s eyes were too real.
Setting aside the tangled past, what stood before her was simply a little sister who wanted to be good to her older sister but never knew how.
A trace of the original host’s instinctive aversion to the name “Bai Yan’er” still lingered in Yan Yu’s chest, but under her calm observation, it slowly settled.
She didn’t share the original host’s jealousy.
She just thought Bai Yan’er was quite cute.
“It’s fine,” Yan Yu spoke, her voice a bit hoarse from earlier coughing.
“I know you meant well.”
Bai Yan’er froze completely.
Her eyes widened, her long lashes fluttering, as if she hadn’t understood.
It wasn’t an icy rejection or a disgusted evasion, but a calm “It’s fine.”
“Sister! You… you really don’t blame me?” She couldn’t help but shuffle half a step closer, her voice brimming with delight. “I’ve actually always…”
“Thank you,” Yan Yu interrupted her gently, with a tone that signaled this was enough.
She shifted her gaze to the other end of the corridor—Ruo Xiaozhen was peeking out from there, her face full of worry, clearly having waited for a while.
“I need to go,” Yan Yu said to Bai Yan’er with a slight nod, her hands returning to the wheelchair’s wheels.
“My friend is waiting for me.”
With that, she applied force with her wrists.
The wheelchair slowly turned and began moving towards Ruo Xiaozhen.
Bai Yan’er stood where she was, watching the frail back in the wheelchair gradually recede.
Her lips moved, but in the end, she didn’t call out to stop her.
Only the lingering spark of pleasant surprise in those beautiful eyes quietly followed Yan Yu.
After a long while, she seemed to wake from a beautiful dream, letting out a soft sigh and taking her phone from her pocket.
The screen lit up.
The wallpaper was a somewhat old photo.
In it was a picture she had secretly taken of Yan Yu when they were younger.
Yan Yu was wearing a faded school uniform, sitting under an old locust tree in the yard reading a book.
Little Yan Yu’s expression held the habitual quiet aloofness, even a bit of coldness from memory, but the photo’s angle clearly reflected a careful, treasuring gaze.
Bai Yan’er gently traced her fingertip over the face on the screen, her gaze impossibly tender.
“That’s really good, Sister…” she whispered softly.
—
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.